2018 International Tour – Barbados

Day 1 of Tour 2018:

So international tour 2018 has started. Most of the boys set off from near Gatwick at 6am for our 10am

The Barbados gang gather at Gatwick

flight. Amogh, perhaps living the closest to Gatwick out of everyone, got there at 7.45am, 45 mins late and was kindly rewarded with a Guinness in honour of St. Patrick’s Day. He was joined in the Gatwick Spoons by 6 other Clubmen who also disobeyed the 7am meet order and it was the perfect way to start tour. Rather shocking to all who know him, Dan was not one of those 6 as he was the first to arrive at the airport.

After a quick breakfast at the airport, the gents got onto the plane and set off for our 9 hour flight to Bridgetown Barbados. The flight was delayed due to snow but once up in the air the excitement started to build. Jack Ridge, ‘I can’t wait to get to South Africa.’ , Ed Fox, ‘I can’t wait to see all the Clubmen, I only meet them in foreign countries’, Matt Tembey, ‘Barbados has been waiting years for me to arrive.’

Some of the lads quickly tucked into the complimentary drinks and by the end of the flight many of the tourists had had the equivalent of 3 K-ciders by 1pm Barbados time. L.e.g.e.n.d.s.

Barbadian immigration was efficient and friendly and by 4.30pm we were sat in Time Out hotel planning our next moves.

The rest of the evening has been spent relaxing and exploring the local area. A quick game of volleyball happened on the beach with Team Lawson winning 21-18, over Sebs team of frankly useless volleyball players. The guys are now trying a few rums, having some food and enjoying the evening.

Onto day 2.

Day 2 of Tour 2018:

Day 2 started with the promise of the first bit of cricket of the tour. Sloach had managed to get us a ‘continental’ breakfast consisting of essentially anything you wanted from a full English to a bit of plantain. Safe to say breakfast was great and it really helped some of the toughing Clubmen who had tried one too many rums the night before. Once the bus arrived we were off to the Franklyn Stevenson Cricket Academy for nets.

We arrived and went through our warm up. The nets were a proper chance to acclimatize to the heat when playing and many suffered. During a 2 and a half hour net 107 litres of water were consumed and a few Clubmen were seen lying down due to the ‘heat’.

Half fielded whilst the other 13 used the two nets to get a bit of practice before the “Fresh” XI game tomorrow. The nets were hard, fast and bouncy, with even Merriman hitting a few Clubmen in the chest. Jonathan Ede was seen fending off multiple bouncers from Curtis and Roche, and a few balls were sent for 4 and 6 out of the spinners net by Dan and Randall.

After the net and a few fines, the guys spread across the beach for some lunch and a bit of sun. It’s safe to say it was a great afternoon of relaxing. Plenty spent ages in the sea and a game of ‘sea-cricket’ broke out. First ball the fox managed to let go of the plastic quick cricket bat and nearly hit a women. After a few good innings and a lot of dropped catches Lawson got his go. First ball, block. Second ball, duck. Third ball,

Before Choppy yeeted the bat into an unsuspecting holidaymaker

middles it and lets the bat fly. 10, 20, 30 yards it flies and hits a women in the arm. Ridge, “it’s a shame the only way I’ll be seeing Lawson this holiday is at visiting hours’. She was thankfully ok, Lawson avoided arrest and after a few apologies the guys head to the sunbeds for the last minute sun. Besides Ollie just avoiding an impaling from an umbrella, the afternoon just rolled into the evening and the guys are now thinking about dinner, probably at the local restaurant Daddy’s which is becoming a favourite.

Tonight should be another relaxed night in the hotel with lots looking forward to the first game tomorrow.

Day 3 of Tour 2018:

The evening of Day 2 brought about the tour sweepstake where each tourist was put into the hat and given a handicap based on their batting ability and number of games they were playing (Louie got 0, whilst Merriman got 90, these will be added to total tour runs to see the winner). Each of us then drew out a name hoping that they would be the ones to score the most runs on tour. Ridge loved the handicap system as he realized at that exact moment, before any games had been played he had the most runs on tour. Jono had throwbacks to PE as he was picked last, but after that the night tapered off as we got excited for the first game tomorrow.

The Fresh XI

The first game saw the ‘Fresh XI’ face Combermere School, rumoured the best cricketing school in Barbados. Sash and Jono opened up against some gas and got a partnership of 100, at that stage Jono was on 3* and Sash was on 74*. Everything at this stage looked easy. We continued to build and Jono got out for a hard earned 15 off 75 balls and in came Krishan.

Krishan brought his slightly annoying energy to the match and watched Sash, Abash his way to a 100, hitting a huge 6 over the pavilion to reach the milestone on debut. The frankly outstanding innings eventually came to an end with Smash finishing on 125, what a way to start his UWMCC career. Krishan also played a great hand, hitting and running his way to 58 off 48 balls. Just when we thought the fresh couldn’t get any better, Aragog comes in with 2 balls left thinking, “what’s the point? All I can do is get out and look awful, or smash the first ball for 6, but that’ll never happen.” But it did. Their 16 year old, 78mph bowler gave him a short one and he smashed it for 6 over square leg. The spider knows no limits. A great opening game from the Fresh had us finishing on 233-3 off our 40, which was actually off 30, given Jono faced 10 overs of dots.

Tea was a great portion of rice and beans which all Clubmen besides Krishan and Louie loved. A quick

Big Bash Abbasi tonning up on debut – legend

warm up followed and Joe had the guys in a group thinking about how they were going to win the first game on tour. Meanwhile the fans had been thinking of what a UWMCCRFC of tourmen would look like. I’ll let you imagine who we had with Riley in the half-back partnership and which clubmen made it into the front row.

Back to the 2nd innings where Curtis was opening up. Started with a bouncer 2 foot over their captain’s head. We all thought he was intimidated. But no, this West Indian u19s reserve player was not. Second ball flicked over square leg for 6 and in next to no time they were 89-0 off 6 overs. One shot that stands out from the first 6 overs was when Randall, captaining today, got dispatched over mid-off into a house for 6. A video can be nicely seen on Instagram, but I can tell you now it was huge and had every right to be hit, given it was a nice juicy half volley.

After that, Oli Warwick and Rav managed to slow the stem of runs with some tight bowling and Oli finally managed to get the breakthrough ending with 2 wickets off his 6 overs, only going for 24 runs. Ede, Owen and Joe bowled nicely but just seemed to get carted and Ridge nearly got his first UWMCC wicket in the last over of the chase. They needed 1 off 64 balls with 8 wickets remaining and Ridge managed to get one to pop off the surface forcing their West Indian u15s batsmen to pop one to the covers. Sadly for Ridge, 1 Sesh Saurav was the man it went to. After having bowled nicely, he shelled what can only be described as a dolly. The kind of thing even Charlie Turner could hold onto. They then knocked off the run, winning with 62 balls to spare. That concluded what in the end was a draining day for all the players, but with the Fresh top 4 batting very nicely, some great spells from Warwick and Rav and great levels of effort from all, there is plenty to look forward to for the rest of tour and in the summer.

The evening frivolities amounted to a relax in the pool, a few banks beers and a live David Attenborough show whilst watching a chicken climb a tree to avoid being attacked by the cats.

Day 3 belonged to Sash for his great century, but with Krishan chasing him down, he’ll need a few more in tomorrow’s game to put the sweepstakes out of reach.

Day 4 of Tour 2018:

Day 4 brought with the 2nd game of tour. It saw the Tour ‘gun’ XI play The Lodge School, the second best

The ‘Gun XI’

school in Barbados. The drive to the ground was the longest so far taking us inland past plantations, the Four Square rum distillery and a few other cricket grounds. When we passed the islands only prison the bus driver said, “If you guys don’t win today, I’ll be dropping you off here for the night”. As if we needed any more incentives to win.

We finally got there and drove past a palm tree lined entrance to the pavilion of The Lodge School. The match was played in perfect conditions, a nice cool 29 degrees, a sea breeze and some palm trees for a bit of shade. On first sight, the pitch looked hard, bouncy and it had a few cracks. Louie saw this, won the toss and decided to put them in and that we would have a bowl.

Roche and Randall opened up and Roche quickly bowled 10 wides in his first 2 overs. Not the start we were looking for. The first 10 overs followed the same pattern with great balls being followed by wides so no pressure really building. They reached 55 off the first 10.

Curtis then came on after the drinks break and made the breakthrough, shnicking the guy behind with a good take from Louie. Curtis and Warwick managed to build a great bit of pressure and kept the runs tight as well. One thing that didn’t go so well in the middle overs was Louie’s chat. It’s just constant nonsense.

Ballo and Chase then bowled in a left arm spin tandem with Ballo bowling 8 overs straight through for the first time in his life. He finished with figures of 8 overs for 40 runs and 1 wicket. Whilst Chase managed to grab a few more getting the Barbados u18s captain with a ball that rolled and finished with figures of 8 overs, for 33 runs and 3 wickets.

Into the last 10 overs the boys were looking to keep the target under 200 and almost managed it. They were 155-5 after 30. The last 10 overs saw the last 5 wickets fall with Oli Warwick taking 3 in one over, and Randall getting 2 from the other end. Also included in the last ten was the only 6 of the innings over ‘goat corner’ off Ballo and Timmo having perhaps the worst over of fielding witnessed in Barbados. Fielding at deep mid-off the batsmen hit the ball straight to Tim who dropped it. Next ball, dot. The following ball the batsmen does the same again and again Tim drops it in the same position much to the joy of the 100 school kids watching who let him know how silly he’d been. Thankfully he also managed to hold onto one in the next over and eventually they were all out for 200 in 37.5 overs. After a good bowling and fielding display the boys headed to tea looking forward to the chase.

Sadly only 17 of us managed to eat at tea, with the other 8 still waiting for food now. Louie and Smash Abbasi were sent in to open and the chase began. The first 5 overs started well with Louie looking good, hitting a few fours square of the wicket and Big Bash Sash facing only 2 balls, one of which was a 78mph beamer to the chest.

Sash was sadly dismissed soon after popping one to cover for 6 and then Randall and Louie built a nice partnership taking us to 60-1 off 16 overs. Joe, trying to manipulate the field played across one and got bowled for 15. This led to a major collapse putting us on 76-6 off 22 overs. That’s 6 overs, 4 wickets for 16 runs. Awful. Actually terrible. Their bowlers kept it very tight and were probably comparable to a Loughborough 2s bowling attack. Some lower order hitting around Timmo made it a bit better, Ballo getting 14 and Rhino 13. Tim was eventually the last wicket to fall for 29, leaving us being bowled out for 136 off 32 overs. Not the result we wanted, in a game we had a real chance to win, but onto the next one.

Fines took place on the bus back with only 8 people of 25 not maxing out due to a mix of some illegal drinking on school premises and Dan being in a bad mood. Once back, the guys chilled by the pool and beach, looking forward to watching the North Vs South game tomorrow in the sun.

Day 5 of Tour:

Day 5 brought a break in the match days, but not in the cricket. Roche had organised for us to watch the

Shoutout to Maurice

North Vs South game at the Kensington Oval.

The night before a quiet drink had turned into quite the opposite for most Clubmen with a 2 for 1 drinks offer at My Friends place being taken advantage of. A few circle games were played and the night was a great one; so I’m told. One fact that came out from Turner, is that he once took part in the national Sudoku championships finishing in the top 10 in the country. The man becomes more of a badger every day.

Another early start was hard on all of us, with many potentially still seshed on the bus. We arrived at The Kensington Oval in Bridgetown just in time to see the start of the one day match. A lot of potential future England players were playing and our seats were right next to their changing rooms. Some of the boys were more interested in uploading it to snapchat so were in search of WiFi. The England North and South teams brought their own WiFi along and Ridge tried to ask them for the password, this led to Paul Collingwood, T20 World Cup winning captain, replying with 2 simple words that weren’t the password, with the last one being off.
The rest of the day led to us watching the game and wandering around the centre of Bridgetown. Some massive sixes were hit and Barbados’s own McDonalds was tried too. The North eventually won, good for the North to win something for once, and we got our bus back.

Day 6 of Tour:

The night before, the clubmen headed to Harbour Lights, a beach bar with free drinks once inside. A few

The night ‘Come On The Boys’ and ‘Oversesh’ were born

took advantage of this and ended up worse for wear by 10pm. The Essex cricket team were there as well and Rav took a particular liking to Matt Coles, who he followed around and talked about for the whole night and the next day! A great night filled with drinks, dancing and a Pop! based megamix on the way back was topped off by lots of clubmen ending up in other clubmen’s rooms. Tom even tried to get into the wrong room, adamant it was his, and his roommate Amogh had locked him out. Sadly it was not, and his banging and pushing of the door earned him a warning from security. Silly.

The next morning saw an early rise for our 3rd match of tour Vs Queen’s College. Hopes were mixed with a mixed team set to play and many struggling with ‘dehydration’. We were welcomed to the ground by their coach and headmaster and Harry quickly went about winning the toss and selecting to bat. The coach had seen that we hit 233 against Combermere School, the best in the country, and had put all his best bowlers in the team. Thanks Sash. Tembey and Timmo opened up and were cruising for a few overs. Tembey played a glorious cover drive for 4, which even he was shocked at, given he had been asleep 5 minutes before the first ball was bowled. The start was all that really went well with the team being bowled out for 77 due to awful batting and a popcorn pitch. Some middle order hitting from Riley and Sander, getting 16 each, had saved face a little but we didn’t feel confident going in to bowl.

The selection of teas again left Louie with no food as the vegetarian option of fish meant there was nothing for him.

We went in to bowl hoping to take a few wickets with us. Ridge and Turner opened up. Ridge bowled well

A hungover group of clubman pose for a post game picture with the oppo

and took his first UWMCC wicket!!! Turner ‘the salmon’ then took an incredible catch at mid-off and the fielding team went mad – tops off doing laps. We had them 37-4 off 8 overs and whispers of a win were floating around. Sadly this was put to sleep as their 5th and 6th batsmen batted well. Roche almost got us another with a bouncer but sadly they chased our 77 down in 16 overs. Ed Fox was hit for the winning runs and most of the loss has been put down to him.

Not the best performance from the batsmen, but genuinely some of the 16 most enjoyable overs of fielding all the players had been involved in. A great effort in the field after the batsmen had let us down.

Friday brings a day of rest by the beach and the Oistins fish fry in the evening. Good to have a break from the cricket.

Day 7 of Tour 2018:

Today was the first lie-in of tour. Only a 10.40am leave. Most Clubmen took advantage of this and had their first 6 hour or more sleep of tour. We got up in time just to watch Afghanistan qualify for the world cup by beating Ireland. Debates about how the ICC doesn’t have a bigger world cup started and we concluded that, “the ICC want the dollar, more than Investment Bankers”.

We arrived at the Beach Boatyard at 11am and had 3 hours of free drinks, sun and food. Most had a few Carib to start and went into the sea. This place had a rope swing and trampolines in the sea and we quickly took over them. Aside from this, a Fresh Vs others volleyball match took place with the Fresh being gifted a win, just to make them feel better. Volleyball continued and a random 40 year old man who has just discovered the gym called ‘Dave’ joined in. He clearly wasn’t enjoying his honeymoon as he stayed for a while before we got lunch.

Just before lunch, the unseen amount of odds led to the Boatyard Boat Race. 2 sets of 4 Clubmen raced to the trampolines in the sea, belly-flopped, and ran back (stages clearer on Instagram). Sash and Dan won their respective races, with all 8 ending up completely shattered from the run, swim and jump.

After lunch, some more volleyball was played and sun soaked in. Some even tried to swim to the floating slide, quite a bit out to sea. Those that got there were lucky enough to see Crab Abbasi backwards flop into the sea after an attempted front flip. After the bus back, Clubmen decided to continue to enjoy the beach and go in the sea near our hotel. However, we didn’t realize how powerful the riptide actually was.

The ones that went in started within the designated safe zone and drifted much further left. They were all

‘Look at those rigs’ – Spiro, circa March 2018

fine and were just swimming back slowly and all understood the dangers of currents in the sea. However, the lifeguard told us, “can one of you go and save your friends please? Do you want them to die?”. The irony of a lifeguard asking us to do his job was too funny for some, but the lifeguard did not enjoy it. He told us all to get out the sea and come in for a chat. Once everyone was in and safe, no thanks to the lifeguard – not that anyone was ever in trouble anyway – he quickly told us we were banned from the sea for tour. This means that UWMCC have now been banned from 70% of the world’s surface for the next week, by a lifeguard who I am not convinced could actually swim, so maybe it’s for the best.

The day was spent at the beach and tonight we are heading out to the Oistins fish fry which is meant to be one of the highlights of any trip to Barbados.

Day 8 of Tour 2018:

The night before we had all made the trip to the Oistins fish fry, which was essentially a thousand tables where you could sit and order some fish ranging from Swordfish to Shark.

Finding a table was the first challenge as it was completely packed. Once we had one, we all quickly ordered and settled in with a few beers. The majority of Clubmen were tired and didn’t fancy a big one before the catamaran cruise tomorrow and ate and went home. A few of us, stayed to enjoy the music and a few more banks beers. Those that left can only be described as mugs.

The place got busier and just before the few of us that stayed headed home we bumped into everyone’s

Rumours that Muggy Mike bowls absolute heat

favourite Love Island participant Muggy Mike, who was a gent and got a photo with us.

Most of the boys woke up the next day with bigger regrets than the whole of the UK on the 24th of June 2016 after seeing the snaps of Muggy. We left at 8.10 to get to the Tiami catamaran cruise around Barbados. We arrived, got the safety briefing and settled in for another day of sun, sea and suspicious sun tans. Kemar, Jonathan, Jason and Shane were our hosts and drivers and they made the day a great one.

Our first stop was a snorkel with some turtles and flying fish and the next stop was a snorkel over a ship wreck where lots of different fish were swimming around. Dory was spotted but sadly no Nemo. A few Clubmen struggled with the concept of breathing underwater and had to stay above the water for the whole time. Swimming with the fish and turtles was great fun and the rest of the day was spent cruising around and stopping off at various beaches.

Lunch was another Caribbean special with macaroni pie, flying fish and jerk chicken all over the place. After

Catamaran Cruise

lunch we cruised past Simon Cowell’s 20 million dollar villa and stopped off for a swim at a beach. Roche lost odds to help the locals who were fishing on the shore. Disappointingly he neither caught a fish nor managed to be dragged into the rocky sea by one.

On the way back we took in the last bits of a great day out, with some of us being absolutely soaked by some big waves over the front. It was a great day in the sun and one I’m sure the guys will remember for a long time.

Tomorrow brings the return of cricket and hopefully the first win of tour.

Day 9 of Tour 2018:

The night before our Day 9 fixture, we went back to Our Friend’s place bar for a few 2 for 1 rums. Most Clubmen decided to have an early night as the sun had taken it out of them on the catamaran cruise and headed back to the hotel. However, 10 adventurous legends stayed, enjoyed the sesh and headed to Sharky’s, the club at St.Lawerance gap. Slowly 10 became 9 and 9 became 5 as some overseshed and headed home. Rumours of a great night with a Pop! like atmosphere.

The next day we travelled to Barbados Community College for our 4th tour game, hoping for our first win. Chase was captaining the Tour ‘2nd XI’ and we arrived at a very nice ground with hope of a win. They batted first and Merriman and Turner opened the bowling. Little did we know that the Sesh god’s would bless this day as one of the best in UWMCC history, maybe even world history.

Flash-forward. We bowl them out for 124 off 18.3 overs.

Merriman’s first over was uneventful. Turner took one with his last ball, bouncing the batsmen out. Then

The GOAT

the Express came into the station and cleaned up. In the next 7 overs, Merriman took 7 wickets including a hattrick. Many of the deliveries were simply unplayable. One to a left hander for his 5th, pitched on leg and took the bail off off-stump. Merriman finished with 7-49 off his 8 overs. Our hero had finally got his just reward. In-between the 7 wickets there were 7 dropped catches, most were very costly as they were their one batsmen who got 79. Merriman also asked to come off after taking 4, to give the others a chance. At the innings break we had great hope of chasing this down and Tasty and Aneesh went in to open.

The hope was shattered early on as Tasty and Aneesh were gone for 3 and 0 respectively. Aragog and Rhino batted nicely, getting 29 and 35 each. Rhino got out the ball after hitting the biggest six of tour so far. At this stage we were 80-4 off 16, and 45 runs were needed to win. Nerves were rising, but we still had hope of our tour win. Sadly we couldn’t quite make it, and fell 11 short, even though Merriman creamed a cover drive for 4.

We finished off the day with a whole tour group meal at Daddy’s where we celebrated Merriman’s great, iconic performance. Onto the final day and the hope of starting our winning tour.

Day 10 of Tour 2018:

The last match day of our tour saw two T20’s being played. One was the ‘Darb XI’ Vs Queens College and the ‘Anti-Darb XI’ Vs Barbados Community College, who had a changed team as the rest were still trying to understand the balls Merriman bowled them yesterday.

We had an earlier meet as we had to get two games in and the bus left at 8.30. We arrived again at the Wanderers ground, which was really nice, and the ‘Darb XI’ warmed up. Roche won the toss and put us in to bowl with Sash and Turner opening the bowling. Sash got hit for 10 and they really teed off in the first 6 powerplay overs ending up on 61-1 after 6. Roche and Rhino were then brought on to bowl. Roche and Rhino tied them down, with Roche bowling a captain’s spell – 4 overs for 19 runs and 2 wickets. They were limited to 71-2 off their first 10. The next few overs Dan bowled 1 going for 13 runs and Ballo and Sash chipped in with a few too.

They were still ahead of where we wanted them to be but Owen and Roche bowled brilliantly at the death. Owen’s mystery spin and Roche’s length kept them at bay limiting them to 146-7 off their 20 overs. Owen bowling 3 overs for 20 runs and 2 wickets. The fielding and bowling effort was great from the team, Lawson also bowled his best spell of tour in the middle overs taking 2 great wickets and Tahiring away in celebration.

The quick turnaround meant Louie and Dan were sent in for the chase pretty quickly. There was hope we

Matchwinners <3

could chase it but all hope seemed lost when we quickly lost two wickets in the first over to their spinner. Louie and Tasty gone we were 0-2. We then quickly fell to 14-3 as Sash was bounced out by a killer delivery at the end of the 4th. Ryan then came in and he and Dan slowly went about rebuilding the innings. Their 122 run partnership saw them see off 85mph seamers and a few average spinners. They took us to 56-3 off our first 10 overs, still needing 91 off the last 10. A couple of waters and cokes for the sugar levels and we were back for the chase.

11 off the 11th and 11 off the 12th kept us ahead of the rate. Rhino and Dan took us to 104-3 off 15 needing 46 off the last 5 overs. 21 off the 17th over with a free-hit 4 included meant 14 was needed off the last 18 balls. After hitting 2 huge sixes onto the surrounding houses roofs earlier in his innings Ryan tried to go again but got caught for 64, ending a 122 run partnership that had got us in the box seat to win the game. Ballo and Dan then saw us home with 4 balls to spare to get our first win of this tour. Dan finished on 59* batting the innings out and a great team performance had led us to our tour win.

The second t20 saw the ‘Anti-Darb’ XI play BCC, the same team Merriman had got a 7 wicket haul against yesterday. This time however they seemed to want to prove a point. Whilst only 86-2 off their first 10 overs, they added 132 in the last 10 to get to 218 in their 20 overs. Merriman sadly couldn’t strike again and they really seemed to enjoy facing our faster bowlers. A few drops to add to the ones from the first T20 hopefully means we have got them all out of the way before the BUCS season.

The two Sachdeva’s completed their family holiday by opening the batting together needing over 10 an over to win. Aneesh faced first to one of the quicker bowlers we faced on tour and got a few bouncers one of which was a front foot no-ball. Queue the huge 6 off the free hit. Sorry no, he didn’t actually score a run off the free-hit. Aneesh was soon gone to an incredible catch at first slip and we slipped to 63-5 off the first 10 overs. Krishan got a good 43 but then spooned one to short 45, and Harry chipped in with a 41 not out towards the end. We sadly were always behind the rate, even though Louie and Seb played and bowled for them, and eventually lost.

It was a long last playing day on tour but it was great to get a great win on tour. We spent the night resting and relaxing by the pool before the coaching and trip to Bridgetown on our last full day tomorrow.

Day 11 of Tour 2018:

Today is our last full day in Barbados. Roche had organised a coaching day for us where we could give a little back to the Island we have had so much fun on.

Half the tour party, 12 of us, left at 10am to go to St. George’s Secondary School to spend 2 hours coaching some pupils cricket as part of the Caribbean Cricket Charity. The school was in the middle of an awards ceremony whilst we set up, but after it was done, we had about 25 12-18 year olds to coach. Louie, who has led our coaching in schools programme in term 2 in Leamington took charge and set up a few fielding activities and bowling skills drills to help the pupils. The aim of the session was to try to encourage the pupils to continue to play cricket as lots at the school had turned to football and basketball despite the islands cricket history. They all seemed to enjoy it and at the end of the 2 hour session we donated some kit to the school. The 12 of us that went also enjoyed it too as the pupils all enjoyed a good laugh.

The other half of the touring party had headed to Bridgetown to take a look at Barbados’s capital city. The guys who had been coaching headed their after the coaching session. Bridgetown was a small capital but it gave us the chance to try another Roti and do a bit of souvenir shopping.

Once back to the hotel in the afternoon, most Clubmen chilled by the beach or pool soaking in the last of the sun before the end of tour meeting and awards by the pool at 6pm.

The awards had been expertly bought during the afternoon by Dan in Bridgetown and on St.Lawerance gap and everyone was waiting to see who won what. After a few rewards were handed out for challenges on tour, with Sash and Dan winning tour challenges, we moved onto the main awards:

Best Tour Batsmen – Ryan Chase – 13, 35, and a match winning 64. Also won the tour sweepstake.

Best Tour Bowler – Sean Merriman – 7-49, including a hattrick

Best Tour Fielder – George Ballington – no mistakes and some gun catches

Best Fresh Tourist – Jack Ridge – Great effort on the field, deserved at least 2 more wickets but Rav dropped them both. Also great fun in the evenings too.

Best Tourist – Sash Abbasi – good roommate, scored an incredible 125 against one of our best opposition and was great bloke throughout tour, getting seshed and helping the seshed when they needed him.

The rest of the evening was spent finding some food and having a few rums and Deputies by the pool whilst playing Hierarchy also known as daifugō in Japan. It’s been a great tour to Barbados and the guys will be trying to get the most out of tomorrow before our bus to the airport at 1.30pm

Day 12 of Tour 2018:

The last day on Barbados and the last tour update to write on what has been a great two weeks.

12pm check-out was ideal, with lots of the guys soaking in some last minute sun or going for a swim at the beach. A few games of President were then played before we got on the coach to the airport.

The 8 hour flight was mainly full of sleeping and a few films to watch. However, there were the odd “odds on”. One particular favourite was when Owen lost odds so he could only use the phrase, ‘I am not retarded’ if the airhostess asked him anything. We landed, the boys said their goodbyes and tour was done.

A great 12 days of sun, rice and peas and a bit of cricket too. Thanks have to go to Roche for organising the trip with Edwin Doran, as somehow it did manage to run smoothly. The next 3 weeks of revision will cause many to wish they were still out there waiting 1 and a half hours before ordering at Daddy’s restaurant or even longing for another chance to field whilst Joe or Curtis get hit over their head for 6. Tour has been great and I’m sure everyone that went on it will remember for a long time to come.